[MUSIC PLAYING]
The James Webb Space Telescope will
be a million miles from Earth.
Right now, there are no plans for astronauts
to actually go and fix it.
So what happens if something goes wrong?
So what exactly are you folks doing right now to make sure
that the James Webb does work properly?
Well, the electronics that we build
are an advanced version of the actual electronics
that will be on the spacecraft.
So we actually test them on the ground before they launch.
So that, once we launch, we can actually
simulate any problem that might happen once the spacecraft is
actually deployed in space.
So a simulator like a game simulator?
Yeah.
It's actually a lot like a game simulator,
maybe with not as much visuals as you're used to.
But we actually have a lot of data
that will be floating by on the screen that indicates things
like the temperature of the spacecraft, what direction it's
pointing, whether the antennas are
communicating back and forth to Earth, things like that.
Electronics that we will be testing actually
is located underneath in the spacecraft compartment there.
And that is responsible for sending all the data down
to Earth and back up to Earth controlling the satellite.
Hi, Alicia.
Hi.
So what are you doing here?
I am looking at data from a simulated spacecraft
of the observatory.
So this is our system, our ground system
that we use to look at telemetry,
send commands to the actual vehicle,
and do our real-time assessment of its health and safety.
So basically, in a nutshell, it's
like you're getting the pulse or the vital signs
for the instrument.
Absolutely.
This pretty much is our eyes into what's
going on on the satellite.
And we determine, by looking at all of this information,
are we safe?
And what do we need to do to get it safe?
So as you can see, a lot of work is
being done right now to make sure engineers
on the ground keep the James Webb Space Telescope up
and running throughout its lifetime.
Thanks for joining us for another edition
of Behind The Webb.